Democratic senators are calling for a national security review of a major foreign investment in World Liberty Financial, the crypto firm tied to Donald Trump and his family.

In a Feb. 13 letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Andy Kim urged the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to examine a reported $500 million stake linked to the United Arab Emirates.

The lawmakers said the investment could pose national security risks. They questioned whether CFIUS was notified. They also asked whether the deal was formally reviewed.

According to the letter, a UAE-backed entity acquired a large stake in World Liberty shortly before Trump’s January inauguration. The senators said the timing raises concerns. They warned that foreign ownership of a U.S. financial technology firm tied to a sitting president is unprecedented.

The letter sets a March deadline for answers from the Treasury.

Background and political fallout

The controversy centers on reports that an investment vehicle linked to Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan purchased nearly half of World Liberty. Tahnoon is the UAE’s national security adviser. He is also linked to tech conglomerate G42, which has previously drawn scrutiny in Washington.

Lawmakers said the structure of the deal could give foreign actors board influence and access to sensitive financial data.

Trump has denied knowledge of the specific transaction. He said his sons manage the business. The White House has rejected claims of improper influence.

World Liberty has already faced a congressional probe over its foreign fundraising. The new letter intensifies pressure. It frames the issue as a national security matter, not just an ethics debate.

Treasury officials have not yet publicly responded.

TLDR:

• Strategy can maintain full debt coverage even if Bitcoin price crashes 88% to $8,000 levels 
• Michael Saylor plans to convert company’s convertible debt into equity over three to six years 
• The announcement demonstrates Strategy’s confidence in its balance sheet and risk management approach 
• Debt-to-equity conversion strategy aligns with Saylor’s long-term bullish outlook on Bitcoin
  

Strategy announced it can weather a Bitcoin price decline to $8,000 while maintaining sufficient assets to cover all outstanding debt obligations.

The bitcoin-focused company made the statement amid ongoing market volatility. Michael Saylor, the firm’s founder, simultaneously revealed plans to convert convertible debt into equity over a three to six-year period. The disclosure provides insight into the company’s risk management approach.

Financial Buffer Against Market Downturn

Strategy’s official statement indicates the company maintains substantial financial cushion despite aggressive bitcoin accumulation.

The company posted that it “can withstand a drawdown in BTC price to $8K and still have sufficient assets to fully cover our debt.” The $8,000 threshold represents an 88% decline from Bitcoin’s current trading levels.

Such a dramatic collapse would bring the cryptocurrency to prices last seen in early 2020. The company’s assertion demonstrates confidence in its balance sheet structure and asset management strategy. Strategy has positioned itself as a corporate bitcoin treasury company.

The firm holds one of the largest corporate bitcoin reserves globally. This financial resilience stems from the company’s debt-to-asset ratio and overall capital structure.

Strategy has raised billions through various financing mechanisms to fund bitcoin purchases. The company apparently structured these obligations with significant downside protection in mind.

Convertible Debt Transformation Timeline

Michael Saylor shared his vision for the company’s debt management through a post on X. Saylor stated: “Our plan is to equitize our convertible debt over the next 3–6 years.” This approach would transform debt obligations into equity stakes.

The conversion strategy aligns with Saylor’s long-term bullish outlook on bitcoin. Converting debt to equity reduces fixed obligations and interest expenses. It also provides flexibility as the company continues building its bitcoin position.

The timeline Saylor outlined suggests a gradual transition rather than immediate conversion. This measured approach allows the company to optimize conversion timing based on market conditions.

The strategy potentially reduces dilution risk for existing shareholders while maintaining operational flexibility. The combination of debt coverage capacity and conversion plans reflects Strategy’s evolving corporate structure.

Billionaire investor and Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio says the global order established after World War II is breaking down. He argued that the world is entering what he calls “Stage 6” of the “Big Cycle.”

His warning has triggered renewed debate about geopolitical instability and its impact on cryptocurrency markets.

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Ray Dalio Says We’re in “Stage 6” as World Order Breaks Down

Dalio frames the current moment through what he calls the “Big Cycle.” This is a pattern in which dominant empires rise, peak, and eventually decline. According to this model, the world is now in “Stage 6.”

“In my parlance, we are in the Stage 6 part of the Big Cycle in which there is great disorder arising from being in a period in which there are no rules, might is right, and there is a clash of great powers,” the post read.

Unlike domestic political systems, Dalio argues, international relations lack effective enforcement mechanisms such as binding laws or neutral arbitration. As a result, global affairs are ultimately governed by power rather than rules. When a dominant country weakens and a rival gains strength, tensions typically increase.

He identifies five types of conflict that tend to escalate in such periods: trade and economic wars, technology wars, capital wars involving sanctions and financial restrictions, geopolitical struggles over alliances and territory, and finally, military wars. 

Most major conflicts, he argues, begin with economic and financial pressure long before bullets are fired. Dalio draws comparisons to the 1930s, when a global debt crisis, protectionist policies, political extremism, and rising nationalism preceded World War II. 

He notes that before large-scale military conflict erupted, countries engaged in tariff battles, asset freezes, embargoes, and financial restrictions, tactics that resemble measures used today.

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In his view, the most significant flashpoint in the current cycle is the strategic rivalry between the United States and China, particularly over Taiwan.

“The choice that opposing countries face—either fighting or backing down—is very hard to make. Both are costly—fighting in terms of lives and money, and backing down in terms of the loss of status, since it shows weakness, which leads to reduced support. When two competing entities each have the power to destroy the other, both must have extremely high trust that they won’t be unacceptably harmed or killed by the other. Managing the prisoner’s dilemma well, however, is extremely rare,” Dalio wrote.

However, warnings like this are not new. Dalio has issued similar cautions for years. This suggests his recent remarks are part of a consistent long-term thesis rather than a sudden shift.

Apollo Global Management is moving to deepen its involvement in decentralized finance through a long-term collaboration with the Morpho Association.

The partnership was announced on Feb. 13, with the Morpho Association confirming that it had signed an agreement with Apollo affiliates.

Over the next 48 months, Apollo and its related entities will have the option to acquire up to 90 million Morpho (MORPHO) tokens.

Agreement outlines token purchase plan

These tokens may be obtained through a mix of open-market purchases, over-the-counter transactions, and other negotiated arrangements. To promote market stability, the agreement includes ownership caps as well as specific transfer and trading restrictions.

These safeguards were built into the structure of the deal to limit sudden supply increases and reduce the likelihood of sharp price swings.

If the full allocation is purchased, Apollo’s holdings would represent about 9% of Morpho’s total governance token supply.. At recent prices ranging between $1.19 and $1.37 per token in mid-February, the full cap would be valued at approximately $107 million to $115 million.

Galaxy Digital UK Limited acted as the exclusive financial adviser to Morpho during the negotiations. Morpho said the cooperation will support the development of lending markets, credit infrastructure, and curator-managed vaults across its protocol.

Agreement outlines token purchase plan

The Apollo deal follows several high-profile institutional partnerships that have helped Morpho strengthen its position in decentralized lending.

In late January 2026, Bitwise Asset Management introduced its first on-chain vault on Morpho, offering USDC deposits with yields of up to 6%. The launch marked Bitwise’s first move into non-custodial DeFi yield strategies.

Shortly after, in early February 2026, Morpho expanded its platform by integrating with the Flare blockchain. This integration made it possible for users to lend and borrow XRP-linked assets, such as FXRP. The rollout included vaults backed by FXRP, FLR, and USDT0, all accessible through the Mystic app.

Coinbase made major strides in 2025 when it integrated Morpho’s infrastructure to support its crypto-backed lending services. The integration supported over $960 million in active loans, $1.7 billion in collateral, primarily backed by Ethereum and Bitcoin, and over $450 million in USDC earning yield. 

Morpho has been also able to reach a wider audience by offering lending, borrowing, and yield products to both individual and institutional customers through other partnerships with Bitget, Société Générale Forge, Gemini, and Crypto.com.

Ongoing protocol improvements have enabled this expansion. Morpho Vaults 1.1, which was released in 2025, improved risk management. In the meantime, the development of Morpho V2 is one of the main objectives for 2026. Future iterations will include fixed-rate and fixed-term loans with decentralized risk controls. 

Market observers see the Apollo deal as evidence of growing institutional confidence in on-chain credit markets. Partnerships such as these are becoming more common as traditional asset managers look for more direct access to blockchain-based financial infrastructure.

Stani Kulechov, the founder of decentralized lending platform Aave, said DeFi could benefit from $50 trillion worth of “abundance assets” such as solar through tokenization by 2050, opening a new class of onchain collateral.

Data from RWA.xyz shows that nearly $25 billion worth of real-world assets have been tokenized onchain, but they are mostly in the form of US Treasury bonds, stocks, commodities, private credit and real estate.

In a post to X on Sunday, Kulechov said he expects these scarce assets to continue growing but that the “biggest impact from tokenization can be achieved by tokenizing abundance assets.”

“Capital is hungry for new collateral, and the world is ready for a transformation that onchain lending can capture and accelerate,” the Aave Labs boss said, while adding that solar could account for $15-$30 trillion of the $50 trillion “abundance asset” market by 2050.

Kulechov said solar debt financiers could tokenize a $100 million solar project while borrowing $70 million to redeploy into new projects, while onchain depositors would have “access to enormously scalable, low-risk yield that is well diversified.”

“An investor might buy tokenized solar, hold for three years, sell at a profit, and immediately redeploy into new development,” Kulechov added, arguing that such a model could significantly increase capital efficiency.

“Traditional infrastructure capital locks up for decades. Tokenized assets allow continuous trading, meaning the same dollar can finance multiple projects over time.”

Kulechov said the same idea extends to batteries for energy storage, robotics for labor, vertical farming and lab-grown food for nutrition, semiconductors for computation and 3D printing for materials.

Abundance assets could offer better returns

Kulechov said these abundance assets could offer higher returns than scarce assets, which he said are heading down “a road toward low, thin margins and diminished profitability.”

“Abundance-backed products offer better returns, better risk characteristics, and better values alignment. They win in the market because they are superior products.”

Aave is the largest DeFi protocol by total value locked, at $27 billion for borrowing and lending, DeFiLlama data shows.

The Tether-issued USDt (USDT) stablecoin, Ether (ETH) and wrapped Ether (wETH) are the most lent and borrowed assets on the platform.